19 thoughts on “Paul Robeson sings Joe Hill”

By Harry Targ
On September 4, 1949, an angry crowd surrounded the 20,000 friends of
Paul Robeson who had come to hear him in an open-air concert at
Peekskill, New York. After the event right-wing, anti-communist inspired
mobs attacked supporters who were leaving the event. These attacks
included smashing the windows of Pete Seeger’s automobile with several
family members inside. Sixty years later we remember the great
progressive Paul Robeson, his struggles for justice, and his refusal to
bow to the politics of reaction.

And when at last they gave his passport back
He made a tour of Northern small town halls,
Still handsome, clever, radical and black,
His voice still strong enough to shake the walls.
But though the place was packed, the three front-rows
(Reserved for all the local great and good)
Were pointedly unoccupied by those
Apparently afraid of brotherhood.
Though no-one who was anyone was there,
The no-ones who are everybody came –
The nobodies who know that everywhere
There’s somebody who thinks they’re not the same,
As if there’s anyone who could delay
The walls of privilege tumbling down one day.

This is a new sonnet by Andy Croft. The poem resonates with Robeson’s deeply confident voice still ringing in our ears. Andy Croft’s most recent books are Sticky (Flambard Press) and, with WN Herbert and Paul Summers, Three Men On The Metro (Five Leaves). He runs Smokestack Books.